Text by Grace Khaw
As part of our coverage of the New Creation Church latest worship album, The Perfect Offering, our Zone writer caught up with our church’s music director, Karen Lim, for an exclusive interview for the Zone website. In the first part of this interview, Karen shares about her journey as a young girl and what worship means to her.
Svelte, soft spoken and almost always seen with a smile, Karen is easily recognizable and is widely known as the lady behind many of the anointed worship songs we sing today in New Creation Church (NCC).
Pastor Prince has also often testified that in the past, when NCC was smaller in size and lacking a keyboardist, he had prayed for God to bless NCC with a keyboardist who would musically support and exalt the revelation of God’s grace on the platform; God responded by bringing Karen to NCC in a short span of time thereafter.
And truly, God answered Pastor Prince’s prayer exceedingly and abundantly. Today, Karen not only plays the keyboard every Sunday during church services, but she is also a Music Director with New Creation Church’s worship team. Despite this, Karen is refreshingly down to earth and is quick to describe herself as “a product of God’s Grace”.
Karen shares that she did not come from a Christian background or family, but being a mischievous little girl growing up, her mother enrolled her in a Sunday school so that she would learn to be more obedient. However, unbeknownst to her mother, it was there where Karen accepted Christ at a tender age of 6.
Nonetheless, growing up as the only Christian in her family was difficult because her family disapproved and disallowed her from attending regular Sunday church services. From the ages of 7-14, Karen did not step back into church on Sundays until a classmate brought her to church at 15. Soon after that, hungry to worship God on Sundays, Karen badgered with her mother by promising her good study grades in exchange for permission to attend church more frequently.
She reveals, “And really by the grace of God, from then my grades improved and I would always be in the top 5 of the class. Because of that, my mum gave in and started allowing me to attend Saturday services and Christian fellowship gatherings like Girls’ Brigade, or prayer meetings. However, she was still very reluctant about letting me attend regular Sunday services because to her, she had the idea that as a Christian, you forget your family because there are so many Christian activities on weekends.”
Despite the challenges then, Karen looks back at her growing years with fondness because she sees it as a period marked by God’s faithfulness. It caused her to treasure her time with God and it developed character. “As a youth, it was hard for me; but that difficulty made me chase after God even more. I remember that I would yearn to go to church and I would count the days. But because I was not allowed to go, I would pray in tongues days before to make a way for my mum’s consensus to let me attend…be it to home care group, to fellowship, or any Christian gathering.”
After her ‘O’ level examinations, Karen was offered a scholarship in the U.S to study Economics and Music. It was during this time when God also answered her prayers for her mother’s salvation. To Karen’s delight, her mother received the Lord during a care group farewell gathering a few days before she left for the U.S. Karen adds that it is precisely personal moments such as this that fuels and motivates her to worship.
Karen with the worship singers at a sound check
For her, “worship is remembering what God has done for me”. She explains, “When everything is fine, we forget God, and that is very human. But in times when we are facing trials, tribulations, or times when we really need to have faith. I find that remembering the incidents and situations where God came through for me and remembering the things that caused me to be amazed at God, really leads me to appreciate what Jesus did for me and worship Him. As I remember my personal experiences with God, I witness God in my life.”
Worship, to Karen, is more than just music and lyrics. She said, “Yes, songs and lyrics aid the heart’s cry; yes, for praise we have to use our mouths; yes, the right atmosphere aids worship so much more. But for me, worship especially is not so much about the sounds. It’s not just about singing songs either. Instead, it is our heart’s cry to God. Worship is the attitude of the heart. You could sing every word, yet sometimes in just that quietness in your heart, that too is worship.”
Stay tuned for the next part of our interview, where Karen shares about her songwriting journey and her heart for the Perfect Offering album.
The Perfect Offering is now available at the Rock Gifts & Book Centre.
I’m next!
